Stories by Meghan Bartels

The Euclid Space Telescope is decking the halls with boughs of starlight

From an interstellar comet to breathtaking auroras and from brand-new rockets to iconic space telescopes, here are some of our favorite images from the cosmos in 2025

Sky watchers may be tempted out this weekend, when an underappreciated meteor shower will coincide with a new moon and the longest night of year for the Northern Hemisphere

NASA’s newest space telescope has unveiled a stunning map of the cosmos in infrared

Oceans hiding within the crusts of distant moons are tantalizing targets for scientists looking for life beyond Earth

Christmas trees—and conifers in general—have made some surprising cameos throughout U.S. history, author Trent Preszler reveals in his book Evergreen

Tantalizing observations suggest marine mammals may be teaming up to hunt

NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft didn’t phone home as expected on December 6

Making fire on demand was a milestone in the lives of our early ancestors. But the question of when that skill first arose has been difficult for scientists to pin down

A scientist has identified a possible astronomical explanation for the Star of Bethlehem, as described in the Bible

The Black Death ravaged Europe, and scientists and historians are still working to understand how it became so deadly

Proliferating satellites are beginning to harm the science work of the beloved Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories

Two new studies dig into the long, curving path that cats took toward domestication

A minor earthquake struck California in the early hours of the morning on November 26

H5N1 bird flu has been circulating in U.S. wildlife since late 2021 but has caused only one human fatality. Now a different type of bird flu has also caused a death

The 2015 Paris Agreement forged a path for the world to stave off the worst climate change scenarios. Here’s where we stand 10 years later

Hurricane Melissa raged as a Category 5 storm in the Caribbean last month—and now scientists have confirmed that its strongest gusts neared record speeds

NASA spacecraft across the inner solar system captured new views of Comet 3I/ATLAS—the third known interstellar object

The sun’s current 11-year activity cycle has already peaked—but extreme outbursts from our star may still be in store

The same region on the sun that’s responsible for this week’s stunning auroral display just erupted in another powerful solar flare early on Friday morning

Nearly two million U.S. turkeys have died from bird flu in recent months. An agricultural economist explains what ongoing outbreaks could mean for Thanksgiving meals

A severe geomagnetic storm brought spectacular auroras to much of the U.S. on Tuesday night

The sun just spat out several coronal mass ejections that could trigger a serious solar storm on Wednesday

An early cold snap will chill much of the U.S., potentially breaking records in the Southeast